RAMALLAH, May 21, 2018 (WAFA) - The State of Palestine, as a State party to the Rome Statute, has signed on Monday a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that covers "all the Israeli crimes and violations committed or to be committed against the people of Palestine in the past, present, and future associated with the Israeli colonial settlement regime in the Occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem," according to a statement by the Higher National Committee Responsible for Following up with the International Criminal Court.

Foreign and Expatriates Minister Riad Malki is scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hague time (11 a.m. Palestine Time) with ICC Persecutor Fatou Bensouda to hand in the referral.

Malki will call upon the court to assume its responsibility and duties towards bringing justice to the Palestinian people and hold Israel, the occupying power, accountable for its continuous crimes and violations, said the statement.

"The ICC is the competent authority to investigate the ongoing Israeli crimes associated with the illegal colonial settlement regime and to prosecute those criminals who commit such crimes," it said.

"In this context, the State of Palestine exercises its right as a State party in the ICC, and thus refers to the Office of The Prosecutor the crimes committed by officials of Israel, The occupying power, against the Palestinian people. The ICC will be expected to accelerate the opening of a criminal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel. It is time to hold the Israeli war criminals accountable and to bring justice to the Palestinian People," concluded the statement.

Malki is expected to hold a press conference soon after handing in the referral in front of the permanent headquarters of the ICC.

The Palestinians said they were no longer obliged to keep an understanding with the United States reached with the former Obama Administration regarding not handing in referrals on Israeli crimes to the ICC after the US has reneged on its part of the understanding when the current Trump Administration recognized Jerusalem as capital of Israel and moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

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